Jim Borsey was born in Ashton-under-Lyme in
January 1920. He was the son of Percy and Jane Borsey. In 1939, at the
outbreak of WW2 he enlisted in the Manchester Regiment and eventually
became an armoury sergeant. In 1940 he was posted to Northern Ireland and
it was here that he met his future wife, Mary Ellen Wilson of Armagh. They
were married on 20th July 1942. Jim joined Wades Portadown in 1948, and
for about ten years he was employed as a tool-fitter, a job he
particularly enjoyed as it gave him the opportunity to use the practical
skills he had learnt in the army. Later, he moved to the turning shop and
eventually he was given the opportunity by Iris Carryer to use his
creative talents as a designer.

In the late 1950s, Wade (Ulster) Ltd produced a very limited number of tea
ware items in the ‘Armagh’ range. The range comprised of a teapot, cream
and sugar. The pot was just over 6" high and of circular shape. The cream
was 3½" high and the open sugar, a fraction over 2" high with a diameter
of 4". The decoration was heavily influenced by ancient Irish art and
consisted of alternating vertical stripes of circular Celtic motifs and
open chainwork, separated by plain bands of ground colour. Covered with
the characteristic blue/green/brown glaze of Wade’s Irish Porcelain, these
rare pieces have become particularly sought after by collectors of Irish
Wade. The teapot caries the Borsey signature on the base and though the
other two items, the cream and sugar, are usually found without the name,
there is no doubt that the entire range was designed by James Borsey.

Some authorities have attributed the range, the teapot in particular, to William
(Bill) Harper the famous Doulton designer who, at this time, was employed by
George Wade & Son Ltd, England. This would appear to be incorrect. Harper’s
designs and models were almost exclusively of animals, birds and figures, not
tea ware and in a conversation with the author, Bill had no recollection of
having designed any teapots for Wade (Ulster). Moreover, the strong Celtic
influence on the Armagh design is typical of Borsey at this time. Indeed, just a
few years later, in the early 1960s, he was working on his celebrated Celtic
Kells range.

There is one other controversy connected with the ‘Armagh’ range tea ware; the
Wade (Ulster) advertising material of the time makes no mention of the range and
apparently no factory IP number was ever assigned to the individual items. This,
again, has led to the speculation that the pieces were prototypes that never saw
the production line. This theory would also seem to be incorrect for two
reasons. Firstly, though there are certainly few examples to be found, they are
extant in larger numbers than would be the case if they were prototypes.
Secondly, the presence of Wade back stamps would suggest some sort of production
run. Surviving examples of Wade (Ulster) prototypes, and there were some, do not
usually carry marks at all. ‘Old hands’ who were employed in the Portadown
pottery recollect the ‘Armagh’ nomenclature and confirm its production. It is
possible that the name was used to designate the tea ware in the pre-production
stage, but for some reason, it was later dropped. As Wade (Ulster) and later
Wade (Ireland) did use Irish place names – Tyrone, Donegal, Killarney for
example – it is a distinct possibility that ‘Armagh’ was a working designation,
especially when the pottery was situated in the heart of the county and the back
stamps of the period, emphasised the Armagh location.

Borsey had always been interested in art, especially Irish art, and it was from
this source that he drew design inspiration for the famous range of Celtic Irish
Porcelain. Produced in the 1960s this range was characterised by a unique relief
decoration incorporating a network of interlaced snakes, a motif he derived from
the most celebrated of Irish illuminated manuscripts, the Books of Kells. Other
examples in the Celtic range feature an equally complex arrangement of sinuous
lines done in relief – those were known formally as ‘bread pullers’. The
inspiration for this pattern was also to be found in early Irish sculpture and
manuscripts. The ‘beard pullers’ was in essence a convoluted arrangement of
arms, legs, hair and beards. The factory workers were less impressed by the
ancient, cultural origins of the Celtic range and referred to it, not
surprisingly, as the ‘the Knots pattern’. The vast majority of the pieces
manufactured in Portadown were snapped up by Barney Lewis, the Dublin
wholesaler, who exported them to the U.S.A., though some were also sold at
Shannon Airport. The range was never a volume seller, nor was it envisaged as
such, being made in limited numbers over a two year period. Only six shapes were
produced, each prefixed by the letter CK for Celtic Kells. CK1 was a Serpent
Jar, CK2 Serpent Dish, CK3 Large Serpent Urn, CK4 Beard Pullers Jar, CK5 Small
Serpent Urn and CK6 Serpent Bowl. Each piece carried a moulded back stamp with
the words ‘Celtic Porcelain by Wade Ireland’.

Jim Borsey was also responsible for the design of the Irish Porcelain Shamrock
Range, first produced in the early 1960s. Apparently, the inspiration for this
range came from Wade’s Irish wholesale distributors, Barney Lewis of Dublin, who
put forward the idea that ‘something obviously Irish’ would be a commercial
success, especially in Canada and the USA. Borsey rose to the challenge, and
came up with the Donegal pattern – a large spray of sinuous, stylised, embossed
shamrocks. The design was particularly pleasing to the eye and also to the
touch. It was used primarily on tableware and included a cup, saucer, tea plate,
sugar, cream jug and a preserve jar with lid. Some tea pots were also produced
but in such small numbers that they are particularly difficult to find today.
The moulded Wade back stamp for the range included a facsimile of James Borsey’s
signature.

The very popular Raindrop tableware range was another of Borsey’s designs. The
pattern consisted of raised vertical flutes tapering out from top to bottom. To
this day, former Wade employees refer to this decoration as the ‘teardrop
pattern’, which was the original name used at the factory whilst the design was
in its development stage. Obviously, the marketing manager was reluctant to use
a name with such a negative connotation and the range was issued under the
Raindrop label. Items available in this pattern included jugs, in three sizes, a
coffee pot, tea pot, creamer, sugar and tea strainer. Like so many of his
designs, the preparatory work involved was considerable, and, as he was the
first to admit, the finished article had to be both aesthetically pleasing, yet
amenable to economic production. Without his drive and enthusiasm, the Raindrop
and other ranges of tableware would never have reached the retail market, for,
as he once commented to a colleague, “The work involved is immense and the
heartaches are many. You need to be both an engineer and an artist at the same
time”. Jim Borsey certainly was.

In the 1960s, Wade was contracted by Goblin Ltd to manufacture the teapots for
their very popular ‘tea’s made’ product. Wade decided to spread the manufacture
of the teapots across the group, thus some were made in England and some in
Portadown. Jim did not particularly like the design of the pot he was sent from
England so he set about making it more aesthetically pleasing , at the same
time, ensuring that it was easy to make whilst retaining the insulation
qualities so essential for keeping the tea warm. Goblin was very pleased with
Borsey’s version but strangely enough continued to use also the original design
produced by Wade England.
Though he enjoyed his job as a designer, Jim became increasingly frustrated with
some of the restrictions imposed upon his creativity by the senior management in
England. In 1968, he and a fellow entrepreneur, David Conlin, decided to start
up their own pottery in Portadown. They rented premises in the Mourneview Street
area of the town and working only in the evenings they began producing a range
of giftware. They marketed their products under the name of ‘Armagh
Pottery/Ceramics’. Unfortunately, the pottery was not a commercial success and
folded after two years.

During the Carryer period, 1947-64, Wade Portadown manufactured a range of
ceramic tiles which they envisaged as being a runaway commercial success. Local
photographer, Jim Lyttle, recollects an excited Major Carryer coming into his
studio to have advertising photographs taken of the new products. At this time
the Portadown Gas Works were building a new showroom in the town and Wade’s new
ceramic tiles were chosen for the external cladding. This particular tile had a
grey, granite- like appearance with the typical uneven finish of the natural
stone. Jim Borsey was responsible for the development of the new product and had
experimented with many different finishes. Brian Burns, an industrial chemist at
Wade was a contemporary of Borsey, and remembers Jim using a hair dryer, a
vacuum cleaner and powdered rock in his attempt to create the natural stone look
on the ceramic tiles. Eileen Moore, supervisor in the casting shop, also
remembered them well and recalled the great problem there was with making ‘L’
shaped corner pieces. Firing problems also caused a very high failure rate.
Unfortunately, the tiles proved expensive to manufacture and the decision was
taken to discontinue production. It is somewhat ironic that these cast tiles,
which were a commercial failure, are still in place on the walls of the gas
showroom, having withstood the vagaries of the weather for nearly 50 years - and
look as pristine as the day they were made.

Jim Borsey was nothing if not a gentleman. All his fellow
workers, who had the privilege of knowing him well, are united in their
praise. Essentially, a quiet, introspective man he shunned the limelight
of publicity. Iris Carryer remembers
him vividly, and recalls the great difficulty she had in persuading him to allow
his facsimile signature to be included on the Wade backstamp for the Irish
Porcelain range he designed. So high was her regard for his ability that she
even had the then Wade backstamp – ‘Irish Porcelain, Made in Ireland’ – enlarged
so that Borsey’s signature would be clearly legible.

Apart from designing and developing new ranges of decorative ware, Borsey made
other significant contributions to Wade production in Portadown. When the
pottery opened in the late 1940s no one in the local area had any experience of
ceramic manufacturing. Traditionally, Portadown was a linen town, so the new
Wade employees had to learn new skills and a new vocabulary ‘Clay, dust, slip
and stint’ replaced ‘warp, weft, shuttle and yarn’. Some skills were readily
acquired but it took much longer to become proficient in others. Wade (Burslem)
sent over some of their best men to instruct the raw recruits in Northern
Ireland. Amongst these was Albert Mountford, toolroom foreman and one of the
most enthusiastic and capable of instructors. Not to be outdone by the new
arrivals, Borsey came up with the idea of using a pantograph device to train the
novice turners. Ordinarily, it would have taken six months to do this but using
the new mechanical aid, this time was reduced to less than half. The facility to
provide quick but efficient training for personnel was one of the reasons the
factory prospered in its early, formative years.

One of the most unusual products made in the Portadown factory was the so-called
‘grinding ball’. As usual, Jim Borsey’s contribution was significant as he was
responsible for the design specification for the machines that were built to
produce the new product. Modest, as ever, Jim always maintained that this
revolutionary product was not the brainchild of any one person but rather the
outcome of co-operation between potters, engineers and chemists. The product was
marketed in 1953 as ‘Rondite Grinding Balls’ and sold to industries that had a
need for the finely controlled grinding of pigments, minerals, flour or other
suitable materials. The balls were manufactured in many different sizes, from
3/8" to 3" in diameter. They were put together with the material to be ground
into various sizes of cylinders and then rotated at high speed. The cascade
effect ground the material to any required fineness. Needless to say the balls
needed to be particularly strong to resist breakage and very resistant to wear.
At this time, George Wade was producing ‘Zebra blocks’ for new style zebra
crossings. The English factory had jokingly teased their Ulster counterparts
that they had thrown the grinding balls at their blocks without any resultant
damage to the blocks. The Wade (Ulster) response was to suggest that the
Staffordshire plant should try throwing their Zebra Crossings at one of their
grinding balls!

Jim Borsey died on the 6th July 1977, aged 57 and was buried in St John’s
graveyard, Drumcree, on the outskirts of Portadown. Though it would be wrong to
give the impression that this gifted and likeable Lancastrian was a one man
band, there can be no doubt that his contribution to Wade, (Ireland) was
enormous. Revered by his fellow-workers, he shied away from publicity and was
always first to praise the achievements of others. ‘Gentleman Jim’, as he was
known, was a unique individual. Blessed with a creative mind and a high degree
of manual dexterity, he was both a catalyst and an innovator. Many Wade products
would never have seen the light of day if it were not for his flair and
determination. He was a perfectionist who took an artist’s pride in his work. A
friend to all who knew him, his kindness and demeanour left an abiding
impression on his colleagues that time has not diminished.